“It is a time of quiet joy, the sunny morning. When the glittery dew is on the mallow weeds, each leaf holds a jewel which is beautiful if not valuable. This is no time for hurry or for bustle. Thoughts are slow and deep and golden in the morning.”
—John Steinbeck , Tortilla Flat
.@naval: “If you’re interested in it now, then you’ll be interesting about it later.”
“@DavidDeutschOxf has a great criterion, which he calls the fun criterion.
He says, just do whatever’s fun, and you’ll kind of find your way to it. And there’s a lot to that because that’s what you’ll be most interested in. That’s what you’ll stick with. That’s what you’ll go deepest in. If you’re interested in it now, then you’ll be interesting about it later.
And so I think Deutsch has really a good criterion. I would expand on that for myself: What do I have the most fun doing?
Because fun is a little too broad, right? You could have fun partying and drinking, and that’s fine too. Live your life.
I would say that for me, the fun criterion is the learning criterion. I live for that “aha!” moment when two things that I didn’t realize were connected, connect together. You get that feeling of oneness, and you get closer to source, if you will.
And so, anything that connects two things in my mind that were disconnected, forms a tighter, deeper explanation, and shows me a deeper theory—is fun. And that’s what motivates me.”
“The secret is that everything is always on the line. The more present we are at practice, the more present we will be in competition, in the boardroom, at the exam, the operating table, the big stage. If we have any hope of attaining excellence, let alone of showing what we’ve got under pressure, we have to be prepared by a lifestyle of reinforcement. Presence must be like breathing.”
“The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. Usually, growth comes at the expense of previous comfort or safety.”
“In my experience, successful people shoot for the stars, put their hearts on the line in every battle, and ultimately discover that the lessons learned from the pursuit of excellence mean much more than the immediate trophies and glory.”
The Lord of the Rings has sold more than 150 million copies and shaped some of the most influential thinkers in the world.
Yet the trilogy only came into existence because one mom, Mabel Tolkien, decided to homeschool her son. She cultivated in her son a fascination with languages, trees, calligraphy , ancient myths, and the Christian faith.
Her son went onto master more than 20 languages (Latin, Greek, Old English, Middle English, Old Norse, Old High German, Welsh, Old Irish, Finnish, Hebrew, English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Khuzdul) and become the most influential author of the 20th century. He also dabbled in art, the image below is a Tolkien original.